Corruption Goes All the Way to the Top in 'Mr Bates vs The Post Office' Episode 2
In every movie about a big corruption or scandal there's always a scene where the trepid investigator goes, "This goes so much deeper than we thought." In Erin Brockovich, it's when Julia Roberts realizes that the Hinkley water contamination affected almost everyone who worked at or lived around the PG&E plant. In Spotlight, it was when Michael Keaton's reported team realized Catholic priest molestation scandals were a worldwide problem.
If the premiere episode of Mr Bates vs. The Post Office was about the subpostmasters realizing they weren't alone, the second episode proved how far into The Post Office the corruption spread and how far the company went to cover it up. The second episode was the second act of a scandal drama, and things got juicier and darker. If you thought the bankruptcy in the premiere was depressing, Episode 2 took things to a whole new level.
The newest installment of the mini-series brought a new subpostmaster into the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, Saman Kaur (Krup Pattani), into the fold. When we meet Sam, she's pled guilty to 19 charges of theft levied by The Post Office, but her husband and the alliance convince her to reverse her plea. She does so, and The Post Office ups her charges to 36 counts and doubles the amount she's responsible for. The stress of the trial and judgment from the community push Sam to stab herself before her husband Jas (Amit Shah) gets her help. The doctors tell him that Sam's depression is so bad that they recommend Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) to treat her and warn him not to Google it.
